Dark or Light - Which is Best?



Dark or light? When I say this, I am referring of course to skin colour. This subject is something that has come very much to my attention since being in the Philippines.
I am writing this in a light hearted way, but I have noticed that in the Philippines skin whitening is a serious business. Advertisements on the television, in magazines, on billboards, in shops - in fact EVERYWHERE display the beauty of light skin. You can lighten your skin by using soap, by scrubbing, by having peels, by applying lotions, mixtures and potions that contain goodness knows what, there are so many ways short of casting a spell or performing voodoo to obtain that lovely white glow.
As an individual I do understand this in a way, because I am in the same situation but opposite. I am a white English man and in our country we desire and yearn for what we haven’t got too and that is a nice dark golden skin. We have exactly the same advertising ploys as the Philipinnes but showing brown skin is sexy, seductive, healthy and beautiful. We whitey’s lay on beaches or under sun lamps, frying ourselves and sizzling our skin to achieve that lovely cooked look.
Who is right and who is wrong? In England we truly believe tanned brown skin is associated with good health and it makes us feel happier and more confident and more sexy. The Filipinos hide from the sun and don’t want to go dark, believing light and white is beautiful.
Obviously it is a case of “the grass is always greener on the other side” meaning we always want what we don’t have. We spend our lives, our money, our time on desiring what we don’t have, and trying to achieve it. The big money making companies are really to blame, because they encourage us to feel this way, they stimulate our insecurities, they coax and push us to spend our money on these stupid methods and ideas of changing our skin colours. From dark to light, from white to brown, does it really matter?
“We are beautiful, no matter what they say
Words can’t bring me down”
to quote from a famous pop song, for it is true. We are all beautiful in our own way and if only we all stopped obsessing about these ridiculous things we would be able to spend much more time on the important things in life.
So to answer the question - Dark or Light? Which is best?
The answer is - neither - they are just different but just as good.